Van Zant My Kind of Country: Stories Behind The Songs!

DONNIE: For me, it’s about being on the road, which can be like being in a circus. You’re constantly setting up equipment, tearing down, going to another town, meeting new people, and sometimes you feel like you’re burned completely out and you wonder if you can make it. I think the bottom line for people like us is the show must go on. The fans deserve that, so you dig deep and keep going on with it.

JOHNNY: When we were thinking about doing the sequence on the record, we thought, "Let’s just come out with a bang." This just sums up what we’ve been doing the last 30 years. We wanted to start this record out with a song like that, with a lead break at the end. I’m doing all the low parts, Donnie’s the main vocal on it, then when it gets to the chorus I go up above him. It’s really a cool vocal song.

2. "These Colors Don’t Run" (Donnie Van Zant/Johnny Van Zant/Tony Mullins)
A patriotic ballad that takes a stance without pointing fingers.

DONNIE: This song’s really just about a proud American, with an American flag flying in his front yard and hangin’ in his garage, who really believes this country’s worth fighting for, and still believes this country’s number one.

JOHNNY: We wrote it with Tony Mullins, and he’s just a hoot, so Southern and American that it just pours outta his pores. And we started messin’ with this thing one day and it just evolved into this. You hear people talkin’ about pulling out [of Iraq]. I just visited Walter Reed Medical Center, and I saw these kids there with legs blown off, injured by roadside bombs, and every one of ‘em was going "Man, I want to get better and go back to my unit, finish what we started." I think that makes a big difference when you have a military that’s that dedicated to making something right. No matter what your political beliefs are, we’ve got to stand behind these guys and girls and their families. This song just hits home to me.

3. "Goes Down Easy" (Tom Hambridge/David Lee Murphy/Gary Nicholson) An easy-rocking mid-tempo reminiscent of 38 Special.

DONNIE: For me, it’s just the typical party song. It’s about people working all week and then just let it go once in a while and have fun.

JOHNNY: The thing I love about the song is the feel of it, and the harmonica; we’ve never used that. I’ve been there. It was written by good friends of ours, and when we heard it, it was like, "Let’s have fun with this one."

4. "That Scares Me" (Ashley Gorley/Rivers Rutherford/George Teren)
A moving ballad that honestly examines coming to terms with an imperfect past and a family man’s biggest fears.

JOHNNY: My daughter just got engaged in December. Probably sometime this year I’ll be in that stiff, white collar and turn around and think about her being in diapers, so that hits home. I have a 15-year-old wanting to date. Hey, we have had our time; we have done some crazy stuff in our lives. It’s good to be able to look back on it, but you surely sometimes don’t want your kids to ask you about it. And both of us are married. I know neither one of us would know what to do without our wives.

DONNIE: If you’ve got a family and you’re a family man, you’re gonna be able to relate to this song totally. ‘Cause it is a scary thing to watch your daughter go out on her first date with a boy, ‘cause you know what that little sucker’s got in mind. It’s always hard to let your kids go, but you’ve got to let them spread their wings and live their lives.

5. "My Kind of Country" (Donnie Van Zant/Johnny Van Zant/ Blair Daly/Tom Hambridge)
A righteous thumper that perfectly sums up what a certain segment of Americans do for fun. Ya’ll.

JOHNNY: We had that song with the last record, but the record company said we were trying too hard to be country. We said, "No, we just wrote this song because it’s us, what we’re about: fishin’, having a good time, four-wheelin’." So it’s kinda strange; we played it again for this record and everybody went, "Man, we love it."

DONNIE: They really thought we were being too country, and me and Johnny were just laughing about it, because that’s what we both are. We both like to speak our minds, especially if we think we’re right about something. We try to say grace at suppertime, live by God’s word. I think a lot of people look at us as these big rock stars, and really the only stars we know are in the sky. We like NASCAR. We used to call home to our mother when she was alive and tell her we wanted some collard greens and chicken. It’s just a fun song.

6. "The Hardest Thing" (Daryl Burgess/Thom McHugh)
A powerful anthem that honestly and sympathetically examines the toughest choices in American lives.

JOHNNY: I was on the road and my wife got this CD from Kim Wiggins at Blacktop Publishing and said, "There’s this song called ‘The Hardest Thing’ I think you’ll like." And I did. Then I played it for Donnie when we were going to get some sushi one night and he fell in love with it. Sometimes the hardest thing you have to do is make a change. I just love it. It’s got a great feel to it, the melody’s great, it’s just a great song.

DONNIE: Life’s about making choices, and right or wrong, you have to live with the choice you make. You have to let go and be willing to face the consequences of whatever choices you make. That’s what it’s about for me.

7. "It’s Only Money" (David Lee Murphy/Anthony Smith)
A good-natured swamp-funk about the green stuff.

DONNIE: I think it’s got a Little Feat kinda feel to it. It’s the fun side of Van Zant. We have serious songs that mean a lot to us, and we try to get messages over to people and make ‘em think about things. But also with us there’s that side that just wants to have fun. Plus my wife’s father was named Homer, and he lived to be 90 years old, and he actually buried his money in coffee cans. You might as well enjoy the money; you surely ain’t gonna take it with you.

JOHNNY: Never seen a hearse with a U-Haul behind it, brother.

8. "We Can’t Do It Alone" (Donnie Van Zant/Johnny Van Zant/Brett James)
A driving mid-tempo featuring a fierce slide guitar from Pat Buchanan that’s a proud testament of personal faith.

DONNIE: Johnny sang that song and did an unbelievable job on it. We all are brothers and sisters and sinners, and we need each other, whether we want to admit it or not. And people always ask us why we wear crosses. We don’t wear them for fashion reasons. We believe our Lord Jesus Christ really died on that cross so we could have eternal life. We see people get so stressed out, and we do ourselves. But I found out for myself, and I know Johnny believes this, too: the best thing to do is just get down on your knees and pray, and put your problems in the Lord’s hands. Because the bottom line is we can’t do it alone. We need God in our lives to be complete.

JOHNNY: We had gotten our Dad a cross, and when he died, people said we should take it off him, and we said, "No, he’s gonna take that with him to his grave." So we put that in the song.

9. "Friend" (Tom Hambridge/Jeffrey Steele)
A subtle ballad with brilliant vocals, a relatable message, and an extremely personal tone.

JOHNNY: That song came to us and it was the last song we cut on the record. We had a couple of songs that we’d written, and Clay Bradley at Sony brought it over and let us hear it. [Our label chairman] Joe Galante loved that song a whole lot, too. We thought maybe we can do something with that, and we started playing with it and fell in love with it. People don’t tell each other that enough. I have a lot of acquaintances and very few friends. A true friend is something to hang on to.

10. "It’s All About You" (Donnie Van Zant/Johnny Van Zant/Bob DiPiero)
A nod of appreciation to wives and mothers delivered with melodic mid-tempo aplomb.

JOHNNY: We thought, "Let’s do one for the women." Our wives call from the road, and they’re having bad days just like we do. So this stemmed from that, "You know what, Honey, hang in there, we’ll be home soon, and hey, we’ll light a candle for two."

DONNIE: I’m a firm believer that housewives with kids and all that, our wives, too, generally don’t get the credit they deserve. It’s up to us men to give them a break from the daily routine and take them out and make ‘em feel special, let them know that it is all about them.

11. "Headed South" (Donnie Van Zant/Johnny Van Zant/Brad Warren/Brett Warren)
A haunting message drives home one of the best road songs ever.

DONNIE: We actually wrote that with the Warren Brothers. To me, it’s about being on the road and just longing to get home. After spending 200 days on the road, you can just feel like you’re a prisoner in your own life. It’s a great life, but it can be a lonely life out there. It’s about coming back home and getting back to something you’re real familiar with that means the most to you.

JOHNNY: We’ve been blessed to be in this business, but I think anybody that has been in this business will tell you that the road becomes a lonely place. You’re in front of a lot of people playing music; then all of a sudden you’re back at your hotel room by yourself. Sometimes you wish you could do it on a nine-to-five like most people who work in the day then go home to their loved ones. We don’t hate what we do; I hate the travel part of playing music. Playing music itself with those fans out there—that’s the best part of the music business for me. It’s all the in-betweens, hotel rooms, those four walls you basically live in. I think that’s why a lot of entertainers have drug or alcohol problems. You get bored. You can only watch so much "Days of Our Lives" and CNN.

Produced by Mark Wright & Justin Niebank